Machado said Trump’s military operation to snatch Maduro, who is detained in New York facing US drug charges, was “something we Venezuelans will never forget”.
“Consequently,no, I have no regrets,” she said, about gifting her medal.
Machado, who was in hiding before leaving Venezuela in December to collect her prize in Oslo, said she was organising her return to the country in co-ordination with Washington.
Later, she told thousands of supporters at a gathering in Madrid that they should be preparing to go back home.
“Everything we have done over these long 27 years has been to prepare ourselves for a moment of reunion and of building a nation that will be free forever,” she said, referring to the period under Maduro and his predecessor Hugo Chavez.
Venezuela’s opposition last week called for presidential elections.
Machado, who has not yet said if she would run in a future poll, was banned from running for president in the 2024 election that resulted in Maduro claiming a re-election victory that opposition groups say was rigged.
- Agence France-Presse
